Monday, December 28, 2009

Working on my aim!

Today I played with the camera and took some pictures of the goldfish named Jan in my large aquarium! Sadly the picture quality here on the blog doesn't quite give the pictures justice. But oh well! Anyway, this is Jan, the goldfish that is named after Toines father. His mother and father bought me 2 goldfishes which I named after them. But the one named Cora (after Toines mother) didn't survive the move. It got too stressful.



Saturday, December 26, 2009

Christmas update!

It's been some busy days for sure! I spent Tuesday and Wednesday at my parents place helping them with preparing the Christmas food. Then Christmas eve (Thursday) we were at my parents place as well. A nice Christmas as usual with loads of tasty food, and loads of presents to open! Grandmother was with us as well of course. I got my camera from Toine yay! A Nikon D3000 hehe. I love it. Now I can finally take the pictures I want to. I gave him a Nintendo Wii Black which he has been spending every free moment with ever since. I'm glad he is happy cause I sure am!

Yesterday and today we spent at my parents place as well with more Christmas food. We always make so much Christmas food for the buffé that we have to eat it for days to come. Tomorrow I'm gonna eat more Christmas food at my parents place, grandmother is coming too, but Toine has had enough now hehe.

Our Christmas tree with all the presents we got!

Me full from all the Christmas food, haha!

The Christmas tree at my parents place!

Toine playing a boxing game on his new Wii!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Almost Christmas!

Today Toine went out and got us a real Christmas tree. Just the way I wanted it (with a little help from my dad). So now the living room not only looks like Christmas, it smells like it too! I made the traditional Christmas ham today...and spent several hours fixing a top star for the tree. from a golden star on which I glued on some led lights. It looks awesome in my opinion!

Our Swedish Christmas tree with balls of all colors and lots of glitter!

Our mini Christmas tree made from plastic, here with all the cute nice dutch mini houses we got from Toine's parents. Sadly I forgot to turn the lights on in the houses before taking the picture.


Some of the Christmas presents. I spend a lot of time wrapping them up nicely this year!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Snow!

Yay it's snowing...Maybe there is a chance for a white Christmas after all! All the presents are bought and wrapped... only we still don't know what to send to Toines family in the Netherlands. Oh...and we have to find a tree and a top ornament for the tree. I want a star with lights, only they don't seem to make those anymore, I haven't found a single one!

I'm home sick today, got a cold. But it looks like it might be a quick cold. Oh well, I have to make the best of this time and study for the test I got tomorrow. Oh and maybe I'll have some time to build the gingerbread house this evening. Sadly I don't have the time to make one of my usual large and unbelievably cool houses this year so it's gonna have to be just a normal pre made one from the store.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Lucia

I haven't had much time to update the blog lately...being busy with school, working experience and Christmas preparations and all... I get up at 4.30am or so every week day, get home around 5pm, go to bed around 8pm and during those 3 hours I have to cook dinner, do schoolwork, Christmas things, and socialize with friends and family...well...atleast socialize with Toine...

This weekend I managed to cram in all the shopping so all the presents are fixed so thats one thing less on my mind...

Today we were invited to my uncle Tommi and his wife Hanne for some Christmas food, spanish style strange enough. But it was nice and quite tasty, a fun idea.

Today is also Lucia day in Sweden... a strange but beautiful tradition. If you like to watch it here is a link!

http://svtplay.se/t/123386/luciafirande_i_svt

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

The weekend in london

In order to go to London I had to sacrifice both a test, and a pratical educational lesson...but oh well, I had fun!

Wednesday
We got up early to get to the plane, it was some morning stress but we made it just in time for the boarding, and me and Toine also got the seats over the wings that has the most leg space yay! In the evening we went to see the musical "We will rock you" It was awesome!

Thursday
We made this the "shopping" day. We took quite a long tour around Harrod's and looked at all the snobb designer things there hehe...waaaay expensive! Later on that day we had tickets booked for a flight in the millenium eye (the big ferris wheel for those who does not know). It was nice and we got a great sight from there! We finished of the day with a walk to Big Ben, Trafalgar Square and a walk along half of Oxford street to see the Christmas lights. I don't think I have to mention that we were all feeling very tired and sore after that hehe.

Friday
We designated this day, the sightseeing day. We went to see the guards at buckingham palace, we went to the Towern, and Tower Bridge...Here we had some lunch... thats a funny story. The food was not very tasty, the chicken was so dry it felt like cement in the stomach and the service was rather...well...not the best. We had to wait 15 minutes before we even got the bill to pay so my dad waited alone inside at the table and everyone else went out... When me and Toine went back in my dad had just gotten the check... Toine took out the money and basicly threw it on the table, and we left in a hurry...laughin...why?! haha they gave the wrong check! hahaha we had 6 people eating and we only had to pay for one plate of food and one drink! It became cheap lunch and the joke of the whole weekend! We continued the day with a long walk to the millenium bridge (as seen on harry potter), St. Pauls Cathedral, from there we took the bus to oxford street and looked at some more christmas things! We got stuck on Primark for a little while also, waaaaay cheap clothes that also actually looked good! I found out there is also a Primark in Rotterdam in the Netherlands!

Saturday
The day we had to go home. We spent this day looking at the ancient egyptian mumies on the Brittish Museum, then took the bus to the airport, and went home! Home sweet home!

Sunday, November 29, 2009

London

London was awesome, my feet are soooo tired and still hurts from all the walking, I took some nice pictures with my sisters camera. The Christmas lights was just marvelous! I will write more about this when I have the time! Now I have to try and sleep cause my working experience starts tomorrow! I'm a little bit nervous!

Monday, November 23, 2009

Preparations for London

My arm is completely fine now after the flu shot. Which I celebrated today by cleaning all the windows. They have been looking horrible since they decided it was time to clean the outside of the house... High pressure technique in all it's glory but that damn cleansing agent they used made the windows all gray and stained. All this cleaning made me long for Christmas haha. Luckily London is going to be full of Christmas decorations. Sadly I don't have a camera... I have to ask my sister if I can borrow hers and make Toine buy me one for Christmas so I have my own hehe...

hmm...have to make sure to clean everything before leaving as well (especially the dishes!)... and start packing...it's going to be so much fun!

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Vaccine side effects part 2

Well the painkillers helps for the arm so I can live with that, and I don't have any other symptoms yet hehe... The trip to my parents place last evening got cancelled, we are going this evening instead! But before that we have to take a trip to buy Toine a small travelbag since he doesn't have one yet. I bought one on IKEA just before the party boat. It's nice and pink yay!

Friday, November 20, 2009

Vaccine side effects

Well...my arm hurts more today but it comes and goes, sometimes it's almost no pain at all, but other times it can actually hurt quite a bit. I'm going to try some painkillers and see how well they work. So far I at least don't have any other symptoms from the vaccine so maybe that confirms my theory that I might have antibodies from my mother. She had a flu similar to this one back when she was pregnant with me, so maybe I got some antibodies... lets hope so!

Today I got the note from the blood central, saying it's time to come and donate blood again. I don't know how long I have to wait since I took the vaccine before I can donate... I have to find that out.

After dinner me and Toine are going to my parents place. We have to plan a bit about the London trip, where to go, what to see, what to do and stuff like that.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

The bacon fever vaccine...

the new flu, swine flu, pork flu, the pig (pigglet if it's the light version), bacon fever... yes the current pandemic flu has many names... my favorite is most definatly the bacon fever! Today I did it... I got the flu shot. My mother called from work and said they had the vaccine and asked if I wanted it. Since my working experience placment is at a hospital ward for infections, there is a risk I will get into direct contact with the flu. Thus the vaccine is a good idea. So far I only have a slight pain in my arm muscle when I move. Lets see if it gets worse or not hehe.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Dolphins

I've never been much of an animal activist. I eat meat and I like it...no...I love it. Nothing can compare to a nice rare steak, or a crispy bacon pasta carbonara, juicy chicken legs from the oven, venison potroast... mmmm... now I'm getting hungry hehe.

But this is absolutely cruel and appalling...




http://www.savejapandolphins.org/

Monday, November 16, 2009

The meat experiment...again

I forgot to update about it hehe...but for those who wonder it's going really good. After I salted it I had to put it in a large pot of saltwater with the conservative Sodium Nitrate to preserve the red coloring of the meat. Yes I am a crazy person for doing this but I think it's fun!

Here it is, laying in the salt+conservative liquid outside on my cold balcony. It total I let is swim like this for about 10 days.


It's been hanging like this in my kitchen for a week now. When Toine's parents went home last week I hung it up. I didn't want it hanging in the kitchen while we had guests hehe. It has to hang like this for atleast 3 more weeks and should be ready just in time for Christmas yay!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Moomin Mugs

This is the 4 mugs I bought on the boat! They are really pretty and I decided to collect a few of them now... I could always wish for some for Christmas!

Hehe This is Stinky, he is somewhat the troublemaker but I like him anyway!


This is the Christmas special mug.


This is Hemulen, he collects plants and flowers for study.


This is my one of my favorite mugs, It's Mumin and Snorkfröken in love, so cute!

Party Cruise

Friday after school I went on the party boat Cinderella together with some school friends. Toine was not invited hehe. Since I'm a poor student I decided to buy some Malibu and 2 cola bottles to smuggle onto the boat. The night before I spend some time opening the bottles carefully without breaking the ring seal, then i poured out some of the cola into another bottle, filled up with Malibu and voila! I had 2 cola bottles full of Malibu rum cola! I packed my bag, party clothes, makeup, everything I might need for the night.

On Friday morning I went to school...sadly the first lesson had an interesting subject, but a bad teacher that couldn't talk at all so it became very annoying. I could have just as well stayed at home and gotten a sleep in. The afternoon had better material. I got to show of my skills in bandaging legs, I've had quite some practice in that so it went good.

Anyway after school we went straight to the partyboat! I was nervous like crazy cause apparently they now X-ray all the bags and confiscate alcohol... My bag went through the X-ray and a guard asked me if i had any alcohol...I said no...just cola... He opened the bag and checked and said ok...the bottles are unopened you can go! hahaha YES! During the night I had no less than 5 guys actually hitting on me...one was waaaaaay to drunk and sort of stalked our group the whole evening...and one was like 65...but oh well as long as I got some free drinks I smiled, laughed and played polite hehehe.

I felt really good the day after but I couldn't really remember how my 4 liters of drink became only halv a liter left... Oh well! I bought 4 Moomin mugs and wine and candy on the taxfree and had some lunch...relaxed a bit and then it was time to go home.

yesterday the goldfish named Cora died :( I don't really know why but sometimes they are weak or sick from the beginning and don't have the strenght to survive a move between aquariums. Oh well, I guess I will get another one.

Monday, November 9, 2009

The Flying Dutchmen

Toines parent's, Jan and Cora came last Friday and the whole weekend has been busy busy busy.
Friday:
I spend the whole day cleaning...and I mean REALLY cleaning everything, not a single dust in the corner. Sadly there wasn't enough time to clean the windows too. I looked at it as some kind of early Christmas cleaning and if i did a full scale deep cleaning now, I wouldn't have to do it later hehe. I had time to go a quickie to the store to buy breakfast things for the weekend, and to pick up a package with school books and a package with Christmas fabrics and pillow covers. Then Toine picked me up and brought me home before he drove to the airport to get his parents. My mother and Yvonne with her boyfriend Ville came over to watch Idols while waiting for Toine + parents to come home. When they came they had lots of very nice present with them and we had some nice cheese and crackers. It was a late night.

Saturday:
We got up somewhat early for a nice breakfast and shopping at Stinsen shopping center. I think it was fun, Toines parents bought a few thing, we had some nice coffee and tea, I got 2 new fishes for the aquarium. It's 2 "goldfishes", and I named them Jan and Cora of course. In the evening we went on a restaurant boat for an all shrimp dinner. It was really tasty, and there was a good band playing too. And we got more cheese and crackers. We got home pretty late that day too.

Sunday:
Getting up early again for a day in Stockholm. We went into some tourist shops where Jan and Cora bought some presents for the people back in the Netherlands. We went on a tour inside the royal castle, it was very pretty. I almost wish I could live there...but then again if I live there, I can't repaint the walls in the colors I like hehe. We came out of the castle just in time to see the changing of the guards with the parade and things, very fun to see again. We stopped at a small cousy café for coffee, tea and cake before we separated. My mother, sister and her boyfriend were going to a dance show. Me, Toine, Cora and Jan took some time on Åhlens before we went home. Back home we made the most delicious dinner with a elk roastbeef, crispy baked "hasselbacks" potatoes, a nice sauce, some butter fried chanterelles, and vegetables. It was delicious!

Monday:
I spend the whole day in boring, but important school and Toine + his parents take it a bit slower and goes to some stores in Jakobsberg for shopping. We all meet up for dinner at the local restaurant in Kallhäll. The whole big family. Me+Toine, My parents, Toines parents, Yvonne and her boyfriend Ville, and Elin. We were only missing Elins boyfriend Simon. After the dinner we all said "good bye" and "see you later" cause Toine was bringing Jan and Cora to the airport directly after. I hope they had a fun time!...Me I had a fun time, but very busy and now I am tired hehe.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Moving the aquarium

Well yesterday we spend moving the aquarium from the guest room to the livingroom. Since Toine's parents are coming on friday we thought it might be nice for them to have a quiet room without the sound of the pump and nightliving crazy fish activity...hehe... It took it's sweet old time but eventually it got done. first we had to empty some of the water. After that I had to take out all of the plants and decoration, it makes it easier to find and catch all fish. Which was hell... I have the 2 ancistrus fishes, they are quick and sneaky, and I also have 2 siamese algae eaters...they are even quicker... it took me a loooot of time to catch them. Then I had to catch all the smaller fishes as well. Anyway we placed everything in a 30L box on the floor in the livingroom while we emptied all the water and moved the aquarium. 3 fishes tried to commit suicide and jump out of the box, I saved 2 of them but one I saw way too late so he died :( oh well. The aquarium is refilled now and today I got the new bigger, better pump installed as well, now it's almost like a hurricane in there haha :P well the fishes seem to like it!

Empty aquarium with just the sand left.

This is where the fishies had to stay during the move. It's not very high so I'm not surprised some of them was jumping out.

Aquarium is moved and refilled. The fishies are swimming happily in their new(old) home hehe.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Halloween party

Me and Toine went to a Halloween party at a friends place. It was fun, we met some new people and drank a lot of booze and played a fun truth or dare game... I picked "dare" a couple of times and ended up having to put my sock in my moth and bark like a dog. Another person had to call a taxi company and say that he forgot his grandfather in the taxi yesterday and wondered if they found him. Toine had to show off his best dance moves. It was a lot of fun! I think we went home around 5 in the morning. And for the first time Toine actually wore make up!

I put make up on Toine so he would look like Frankensteins Monster!

Me, I'm supposed to look like a forrest troll... But my hair went flat after just one hour... I don't understand why!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

work work!

They called me from the hospital today and asked if I could work night shift tonight and tomorrow night. Yay extra money for Christmas! I'm coloring my hair now so I can look cool for the Halloween party on Saturday and after that I will prepare the laundry for today and most likely go back to bed. I have to be well rested if I am going to be able to work all night hehe.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

The neat meat experiment...

Yesterday evening I started with my meat experiment. Last year I came across a blog that explained the wonders of low temperature cooking. In that very same blog I also found interesting recipes for dry cured meat which I intend to try out. So Yesterday i bought a piece of lamb steak with bone and began the long long process of drying it. hopefully it will be all nice and tasty by Christmas!

The first part of the process is to salt the steak for 24-48 hours.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Going to England

Schoolwork is ready for now. On Thursday next week, me and Jenny have to defend our essay against the teacher and some school friends that will make comments on it. Should go fine.

Now everything is prepared by the way. Me, Toine, my parents, Elin and her boyfriend Simon are all going to england for a long weekend in the end of november. Hotel and flight tickets are booked and we hope that the christmas decorations will be up and running by then. It's gonna be awesome!

Monday, October 26, 2009

Dinner at my parents place

Today (well yesterday now) me and Toine had dinner at my parent's place together with grandmother. As usual I helped prepare most of the food and we made a "castle roast" (slottsstek) or whatever you might call it in english... It's a special pot roast anyway and it turned out very delicious. Afterwards we watched a movie, Arn - Riket vid vägens slut. It's a swedish movie and everyone talked about it so much before it was finished. Saying how good it was going to be... I'm not impressed. The storyline is similar to that of "Kingdom of Heaven"...It's about Arn... he goes to jerusalem to be a templar knight, his maiden waits for him back home. Arn looses the war, comes home, reunites with his maiden and their son, gets married, has another kid, then fights a war with the danish and dies...The end.

Anyway I'm sitting here now doing the finishing touches of the essay me and Jenny has to hand in tomorrow. It's looking really good!

Friday, October 23, 2009

Mirror's Edge

Woohoo today I picked up the HDTV box and after some fixing and trixing, we can now watch some awesome TV!

I finished playing Mirror's Edge on our Playstation 3 today as well. I have to say at first glance the game looked really cool but I thought it would be too hard for me. But the game started of really nice and wasn't really too hard. But when you get further into the game the difficuly increases, but at a perfect pace, not too hard, and not too easy either. It just feels so good when the gameplay goes smooth but at the trickier parts you also have to really use your brain to figure out which way to go, and how to get there. Sometimes you have to do it quick and under preassure. It's got to be one of the most fun games I've ever played!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Jehovas...*sigh*

One morning just days after me and Toine just moved in here in this lovely apartment. The doorbell rang. I look in the little peeking hole and see an elderly lady. I think oh thats nice, she must be one of our new neighbors, so I opened and she introduced herself. In my mind I start thinking "oh ooh!". She came from jehovas witnesses. I was polite and started talking, explaining that I believe in god in my own way. I was hoping that she wouldn't return. I was hoping she would think that since I already believe there is no need for her to come back.

A couple of months later the doorbell rang again. I looked though the peeking hole as I always do but I didn't recognize the woman standing there. I opened the door...big mistake. As soon as she opened her mouth I remembered her. I was polite once again explaining that I am a nurse student and a blood donor, since I know the people of Jehovas don't donate or receive blood because they believe the soul lives in the blood, I thought maybe then she would leave me alone. I also told her I wasn't really interested in converting or anything...

A few weeks later there is an invitation in my mailbox. She writes that she has a movie about blood donation and healthcare and things that she would want me to see. I ignore it.

A couple of weeks ago the phone rings early morning. I answer and a woman starts talking without introducing herself... "Hi Martina, how are you doing? You sound tired, have you been working nightshift?" and I'm like..."who is this??" ... then she introduces herself and starts talking about the movies again... I tell her that I'm not really interested in the movie and she says "I guess you are tired I will let you sleep and I'll call you another day". I put her phonenumber in my phonebook so I could see if she was calling again, then i would simply not pick up.

Today she rang the doorbell again... I refused to open the door...Why won't they give up? I tried saying no the polite way but apparently it doesn't work... She rang the bell 3 times before she left. I guess she knew we were home, the lights were on in the apartment. Maybe she will take the hint and give up... If they come back I'm gonna put a sticker on my door saying "no thanks to Jehovas" even though it looks god damn ugly...

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Idols...

Well I didn't write about it yet. But me and Toine went to see the Idol broadcasting live in the TV4 studio last friday. Toine got VIP tickets from his work. It was a lot of fun! We got there and got some food, gift baskets with thingies and stuffies... good seats, ended up on TV a few times and the show was way better live than on TV. The sound was so much better, you could really hear how good they were singing!

Yesterday I met up with the theater friends again. They were in the studio to make a CD of all the songs from the show. It was nice. Afterwards we decided to go out and party a little. Sadly it took a bit too long for everybody to be ready so we didn't get to the bar until 00.30. but we stayed and danced until 03.00 and had a lot of fun! I'm a little tired today but that doesn't matter. Today it's schoolwork day so I have to work hard. We have to finish our essay for the last guidance meeting. It has to be handed in on tuesday.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Explotions!

I gotta say there is a first for everything... What happened to me about 30 minutes ago was one of the most unbelievable things ever...

So there I was, feeling slightly hungry so I decided to boil some eggs. While waiting for water + eggs to start boiling I decided to pass the time and change some water in the aquarium. So while changing water I lost time of the eggs, and since I like my eggs very creamy I didn't want to risk them getting hardboiled. I took them out and cooled them down...started peeling them and realized they were way undercooked instead...bummer.

BUT! I get the best idea of my life and decide I can put the half peeled eggs in the microwave to finish the boiling! I run them for 30 seconds. Feel them a little and they are still too soft. So I put them in another 30 seconds. PERFECT EGGS! So I go to sit at the computer with a spoon and the first bite of the egg is wonderful and the yellow looked creamy and promising. I dig my spoon into the yellow and find out that appearances can sometimes be deceiving. The yellow was hardboiled inside.

The next second I hear a fizz and then BANG! The freaking egg explodes right up my face, my hair, the computer screen...everything! Luckily I didn't get burned or anything...So now I'm standing here...wiping off remnants of egg... so take my tip. Never cook eggs in a microwave...

This will forever be: The day the egg exploded in my face...

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Night = day

As you might have figured out, I turned my days around. Since I'm working on my essay and don't have any lessons in school, I've been sleeping longer in the mornings...well...days... and going to bed...well...in the mornings...Not good but oh well. Eventually it will correct itself. Today I went past Bauhaus to buy some more clips for the floor lists since we were out. I decided to also take a trip past IKEA and buy new drinking glasses and a trashcan, some coat hangers, and a large vase.

We needed new drinking glasses because somehow I seem to have broken half of the ones we have. The first one happened long time ago when doing the dishes. The glass was slippery so it fell out of my hand into the sink... BANG...broken... Then another one broke for some mysterious reason...I don't even know why. I was doing the dishes again and one of the glasses just had a huge crack in it, mysteriously... neither me nor Toine remembered doing anything so it broke. It could've been due to tension in the glass itself as well. Anyway...The third and fourth glass broke at the same time just a few weeks ago... Again me doing the dishes. I had 3 of them piled up next to the sink to free some space, I made a fast miscalculated move and all 3 of them fell into the sink...BANG!...luckily only 2 of them broke but then there was only 6 glasses left. Not so good if my family would come over for food hehe. So today I bought 8 new ones... We should be safe for some time now haha.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Disturbing...

For some fucked up reason... the neighbors thought it was a great idea to start drilling into the concrete wall at freaking half past midnight! I swear to god the whole house could hear it...

Monday, October 5, 2009

Busy busy

Theater is now over, after one hell of a good party. The party went on for so long that I knew if I went home to sleep. I wouldn't be able to get up in time to go back and help cleaning. So me and Toine decided to stay and sleep in one of the bed sofas down in the dressing rooms. Bad choice... First it was lumpy and hard. Almost as bad as my parents bed sofa... hehe... constant disturbance of people who kept running in and out of the room to get things (but that stopped eventually) and then in the end, it got freezing cold for some reason. I used my jacket as blanket but poor Toine didn't have anything... I think all in all we slept about 2 hours that night. But it was still a damn fun party. I love the parties with the theater friends cause I feel like I can really let go. They are so used to being on stage, acting, making fun of themselves for the audience that I know, if I make a fool out of myself nobody will really care. The parties are crazy enough anyway hehe.

The final show was on Saturday and it went really good. And on Sunday we had to clear out everything from the stage, which took it's good old time. Not everybody helped in, some people left way early (I'm guessing too much party haha) and some people didn't even show (I know one person actually had to work that sunday morning, poor guy). The ones who really helped out good with the cleaning and everything, were invited for a last dinner at a restaurant close to mine and Toines apartment. My parents picked us up cause we were all dead tired. The food was great and me and Toine decided to eat there more times in the future.

Monday I spent doing laundry and cleaning up a bit. Since we have been so busy with the theater, we haven't really had the time for that yet. We now also drilled all the holes we need in order to put down the floor lists!

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Recovering

The procedure I went through on Friday went perfect according to the doctor. When I arrived I asked immediately for a pill to calm me down, and what I got was sent from heaven (Stesolid). All my nervous feelings were like blown away and I actually even started thinking that it was going to be quite interesting. I got there at 9.30 and at 12.15 they came and said it was my turn. At that time I was really hungry...

Anyway when down in the operation room I got some more Stesolid before they started preparing everything. This is a procedure where you have to be awake! They hooked me up with electrodes to the electrocardiogram to monitor the heart. they covered me up with blankets and sterile green sheets before the gave me local anaestethic in the groin. They sent up electrode catheters though the femural vein to the heart. They stimulated the heart in different ways to try and start the heart rushes i sometimes get and it felt like a god damn rodeo in my chest sometimes. When the stimulations stopped, it got so calm that I actually had to look at the monitor to see if If I really had a heartbeat hehe. Anyway they located a special type of AVNRT which basicly means that the impulses in the AV node sometimes circulates around causing the heart to beat twice as fast as normal. Its not a dangerous things, but it is uncomfortable. They decided to use cryoablation which means they locate the place where the impulses circulate and remove it by freezing it to -75 degrees, this will slowly kill the tissue and is a very safe method.

It took around 2,5 hours but it honestly did'nt feel that long. The doctor and the nurses were very nice and the doctor even showed me how the cryo ablation catheter worked. I wondered how he could keep it still inside the pumping heart and he said "have you ever tried licking on a frozen lightpole in -75 degrees? Your tongue would get quite frozen stuck" hahaha, its funny because its true.

After the procedure I had to lay completely flat for like 2 hours, and they put a large pressure bandage on me so that it wouldnt start bleding. Then I was allowed to lay in a 45 degree angle for like 2 hours, and they kept checking my blood pressure and bandage every 30 minutes. Then I was allowed to walk for 30 minutes and since it wasn't bleeding I was allowed home. I have no restrictions for my heart, I am concidered cured. However for the next week I'm not allwed to carry heavy things because they went into the large femural vein and it's a small risk that it might start bleeding until its completely healed. I feel completely fine except for a small pain in the groin :)

Friday, September 25, 2009

D-day

Jenny is sick so she can't join me today sadly. It would have been nice with the company but nothing to do about it now. Toine offered to go with me but well...I know he hates hospitals and he can only be with me for a short time before it's time for the procedure anyway and then he might have to wait for up to 5 hours until I am ready. So I think it's best for him to be at work surrounded by people and lots of other things to do and think about. It's a lot better than sitting all alone and nervous in a hospital corridor at least. Him being there or not will not affect the outcome of the procedure anyway but I'm sure it will go fine. Mom offered as well, she has no problems with hospitals but still...sitting and waiting for maybe 5 hours and being nervous and alone goes for her as well. Ill be fine :)

The first thing I'm going to ask for when I get there is some anti anxiety medication...

9.5 hours until check in...

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Tomorrow is the day...

I have been so busy with the theater and other things that I haven't had the time to write here.

Anyway it's going great with the theater. All the people on stage are doing a great job acting and behind the stage we are giving each other hugs and support. Even though it takes up whole days and weekends, it's still fun and nice to be surrounded by friends.

I managed to take some time and go to the forest for mushrooms with my mom again 2 days ago. We got a decent amount of mushrooms, both autumn chanterelles and black trumpets. They are drying in my oven right now.

Well...tomorrow is the Day...the day with a big D. Tomorrow I go to the hospital to get my heart fixed. I have to be there at 9.30 and first they are going to do a Heart Echo on me. It's a simple ultra sound examination. And then it's time. It can take anything from 1 hour to 5 hours. I'm hoping for the shorter time because laying still for 5 hours looking up the ceiling is going to be unbelievably boring after a while no matter how interesting all the medical things surrounding me will be. As I expected I didn't really feel nervous until today, but the plan is to have my friend Jenny with me tomorrow so that will hopefully make it better. Toine hates hospitals so I'm going to spare him the agony of going hehe.

Now I have to prepare for the laundry time at 1pm...

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Theater

Me and Toine are way too busy with the theater now so there isn't really anything else to write about. Toine comes to the theater rehearsal straight after work, and I spend the day at home making dinner and snacks to bring with so we don't have to be hungry. Most of the time the rehearsal ends way after midnight and Toine has to get up around 5 for work so he is pretty tired by now. Poor baby.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Tranquillité

The theater that I'm working with this time is called Minieola and if you are interested you can read about this years production on http://www.minieola.se (in Swedish).

I am responsible for the make up as always. I don't have a formal make up artist education, but I do have a good sense for colors. This is just something I do for fun! I also provided a portrait drawing of one of the theater characters that will be used on stage (picture of that will come later). Many of my friends are acting on the stage, and some family members are also there. My mother is on stage, and my father is helping out with the lights. Toine is going to try make time and join to help with the sound as well.

Here are some photos taken from rehearsal yesterday!

The show is starting.


The youthful priest of the village is doing a song and dance number on stage, mocking the unknowing mayor.


The old lady (my mother) is getting a cup of hot chocolate from the fragile wife to the barkeeper.


The old lady reads a perfectly sinful poem to her granddaughter, and the chocolate shop owner is listening in the background.


The barkeeper confesses his sin to the priest.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

OH god, too many mushrooms...

Went to the country place today with my dad and Toine. I managed to talk Toine into going. His plan was actually to stay at home and work...on his free weekend...I said no way!

We came home with like 20 liters of freaking autumn chanterelles...they are oh so super tasty but god damn it it's annoying to first cut the foot of the mushrooms, then brush them all, and after that split them in halves to make sure there is no worms, eggs or slugs inside them and it's annoying because they are so much smaller than other mushrooms so it's just time consuming. It takes almost twice as long to clean them as it does to pick them... We picked some small black trumpets, a few yellow chanterelles (but the season for those is almost over), quite some red-yellow trumpets and of course autumn chanterelles. News for the day is that I finally found a nice specimen of Porcini mushroom (Boletus edulis). In Sweden we call it "Karl-Johan mushroom" and I seriously have no idea why. Anyway it's one of my favorite mushrooms but for some reason there aren't that many of them this year...But the season for those is just getting started so hopefully there will be more of those soon!

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Important news

Yesterday at the country place went quite good. I got my fair share of autumn chanterelles which I now have to clean. That's the boring part! Afterwards I spent the rest of the evening at the theater rehearsal. It's going to be a good show. It's not the same as the one I do in the winter, it's almost the same people however but instead of a show composed with many small sketches and parody material, this show is based on the novel "Chocolat" (there was also a movie made). Anyway I'm going to be busy the next few weeks with both school and doing the make up for the theater!

And now to the important news. I finally got a date for my heart procedure (September 25th) where they will either burn or freeze away the extra electrical pathway I have in my heart. It's a simple procedure where they insert small catheters into a central blood vein, let them travel to the heart, then with electrodes they locate the position of the pathway, and then either freeze it or burn it away with microwaves. I'll be awake all the time and if all goes good I get to go home the same day! This is something I have been waiting for all summer. Sadly it's theater performance on that day but hopefully they can manage without me for one day hehe.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Country place tomorrow yay!

Today I had the first meeting with the teachers that are going to guide me and Jenny on the way to writing the most perfect C-essay ever hehe. Anyway the teachers are nice, and seem very competent unlike the previous one we had last term.

Tomorrow I'm going to the country place again. Grandmother is going to pick me up in the morning and my mother is coming to. I'm not sure if my sister is going too but it would be fun if she did. Hope fully we get a nice share of mushrooms! Directly after the country place me and my mom has to go straight to theater rehearsal.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Funny clip

My mother just posted this one on facebook. I thought I'd share it here since I laughed so much I almost peed my pants! Basically its Tim, trying to eat breakfast with a TENS (Transcutaneous Electric Nerv Stimulator) connected to his right arm.


(TENS sends electrical impulses that stimulates the nerves, which makes the muscles contract and also makes the body release it's own natural pain killers.)

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Birthday party

Today my family and grandmother came over to celebrate Toines birthday. I cooked some nice food with the chanterelles Toine picked over at the country place. Sadly my sisters started to argue after dinner about stealing each others style. I don't get it. Yvonne steals Elins pants, Elin steals Yvonnes hair conditioner and now Elin got the same perfume smell as Yvonne and apparently thats worth fighting about. It made me both sad and upset, they are grown ups and should be able to act like it but instead they started pushing eachother and Yvonne looked like she was basically gonna kill Elin so I pushed her away and yelled at her to behave. I am sorry about the pushing back, but at the same time I feel it wasn't necessary for both of them to ruin Toines birthday party like that over such a trivial matter as perfume...It made me quite sad.

Anyway the food was absolutely delicious and Toine got a gift card at Kappahl for clothes and The matrix triology in blue ray like he wanted so I think he was happy. We had cake afterwards and watched a movie called "Men who hate women" (Män som hatar kvinnor). It was a good movie.

Chanterelle Tagliatelle

about 100g tagliatelle per person
as much chanterelles as you like
about 90g Pork tenderloin per person
Garlic
Parsley
Chicken bullion
Flour
Butter
Cream
Milk

Start by frying the chanterelles in the butter. It has to be real cream butter and not margarin. The cream butter brings out the flavours of the chanterelles better. Fry them long until most of the water is gone and they start to get crispy. Add some flour, maybe 2 table spoons. It will help to thicken up the sauce later on. Now fry the tender loin lightly (it's going to boil with the sauce, you don't want it to get dry). Press a garlic clove into the chanterelles and add some cream. Heat it up and stir well. when the sauce starts to thicken, add some milk and make it the concistency that you desire. Put in the tender loin and a cube of chicken bullion. Taste it and add some salt if needed. Boil the tagliatelle until it's ready, top the sauce of with some parsley and serve with a nice salad.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Long day

I've spent the whole day basically sleeping and cleaning mushrooms but now all the black trumpets are drying in the oven at least. Toine is as I said before on kickoff and I got a message saying they made him IT co-worker of the year! I can't help feeling a little proud of him. He is working so hard, I'm only worried that he's gonna burn himself out way too early but he keeps saying that he won't so I guess I have to trust him. Now I'm gonna try write some texts for the theater!

What a night

They called me yesterday around dinner time asking me if I colud please work a night shift because they were going to get a very special patient and thought they might need an extra person. The night went better than expected and was very calm actually so it was no problem. But since it was Toines birthday yesterday I couldn't just drop what I was doing and take a nap. Plus I also had loads of mushrooms to clean. So I ended up having to be awake for 24 hours traight. It was a long time ago since I did that. So I came home at 7.45 in the morning, just in time to kiss Toine good morning before he left for his kickoff! And i woke up now at 3pm.

Yesterday I gave Toine the ''ABC of the house'' book. Basically it's a book that has every renovation action in it explained. Everything from putting up wallpaper, to making new walls and building a new ceiling. Not that we need a new ceiling in the apartment. But there are other useful things in it as well.

Friday, September 4, 2009

The discovery of the black gold

It's Toines birthday today! Now he's turning 24 years old!

I didn't have time to write a lot lately. On Tuesday my school started again. Not that it was anything to brag about, just some course introduction and registration. The next ten weeks we are going to write our bachelor degree essay (C-uppsats) which means we won't have many classes at campus, instead there is a lot of own work at home.

Wednesday was a lazy day for me. Since I've been so busy with mushroom picking and all those things I decided to just do the laundry and dry my mushrooms. You can dry them in the oven, just make sure that it doesn't rise over 50 C or else the mushrooms won't taste as nice. Keep the oven door slightly open for some circulation and have a thermometer in there so you know if it actually rises over 50 C. A digital one with a small extra receiver is always nice, then you can watch tv or whatever and just watch the monitor every now and then!

Thursday (yesterday) my mother, my sister and I took the train up to the country place and grandmother picked us up. The plan was to pick blueberries like maniacs, but I forgot my berrypicker at home so I didn't get as much as the rest of my family. But it's ok. Then we decided to pick some mushrooms at some new places. In the beginning it didn't go as planned. We didn't find any good places. And when we did find good places, we didn't find any mushrooms... We were quite disappointed, and hungry, so we thought ok...one more place. We get to a crossing and there is a field full of sheep nearby...me and my mother looks around, thinking about entering the forest to the left, but my grandmother thinks we should to to the right one. It looks small, and not very promising, but since we were all hungry we thought ok. Lets take the small one so we can get away from here and finally get some food.

After a little while both my mother and I find a few yellow chanterelles so we think ok...atleast there is a little bit of mushrooms here after all...so we go further. Under some pine trees I see a rare delicacy, 4-5 black trumpet mushrooms (Craterellus cornucopioides) The mushroom I have only seen 2 times before in my life, so this was the third time! I decide to not say anything to my mother, who is walking on the other side of the trees. It was no big deal. 4-5 ones you can't really do anything with anyway. I search forward a bit and find Autumn chanterelles (Cantharellus tubaeformis) which I start picking off. Then I hear my mother shout that she found some black trumpets. And I think why is she always the lucky one?! After a while I hear her scream! She screams uncontrollably and tells me to come over there and hurry! what do I see? The biggest field I have ever seen of black trumpets!!! And they are bigger than ever! My mother was nice and shared it with me. Her bucket was full anyway so I called my sister on the phone and asked her to come over with some paper bags. On the way, my sister found some more yellow chanterelles and she also found some black trumpets of her own!


The trumpets in the forest!

I've never in my life seen so many of them!

And I've never in my life seen so huge ones!

Monday, August 31, 2009

The country place

Yesterday me and Toine went to my grandmother at the country place, together with my parents and my middle sister Yvonne of course. We went to the forest again. My mother and sister went to pick blueberries while me, Toine and my father and grandmother went for mushrooms. Immediately when we went into the forest I found autumn chanterelles/tube chanterelles (cantharellus tubaeformis). Toine kept finding yellow chanterelles one after another and eventually he got tired of the mushroom picking.

We walked a little along the road towards my mother and sister who was picking blueberries (in the end they got 6 liters in total!). My grandmother came and picked up Toine and my sister cause they were tired. My mom got the taste for mushrooms again so me, my dad, my mom, and grandmother (when she got back) went ahead to search some more mushrooms. That's were my dad found the most amazing carpet of red-yellow trumpet mushroom (cantharellus lutescens) and he shared the findings with me! I got such mushroom fever I didn't know what to do! I don't think I've ever seen such a huge cluster of red-yellows!

We grilled sausages for dinner when we came back, and before we left for home we also picked some apples. And when I got home I had sooo many mushrooms to clean.

Today I went to my parents again. Me, my mother and middle sister welt to a "loppis" (garage sale) where the profits go to orphan homes in romania. I found 2 jars, 4 small cute tiny little bottles for decoration, a glass vase, a bigger nice looking glass bottle, 2 "berry pickers" which I intend to use tomorrow and some pieces of fabric to style up my jars a little. Then we got to my parents place, had dinner, and then my mother had to go to theatre practice. I decided to make some nice apple puree out of the apples picked from grandmothers garden yesterday. It's delicious! I made 6kg in total and I brought home about 3kg for myself. Now the jars are boiling to make them hermetically sealed!

School starts tomorrow.

Some sexy autumn chanterelles, They were huge!

Here is a sexy red-yellow trumpet! Also huge!

This is what my kitchen table looks like now! hehehe

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Gold gold gold!

I haven't made any updates the past 2 days but that has a perfectly good explanation.

From the plums I got from my mother I made 2 konserved jars of rum flavoured sugar plums and 2 litres of home made plum lemonade.

I left on thursday after lunch to go to my parents place. Me and my mother was going to take a nice bicycle tour to another forest a bit further away and search for more mushrooms. There's pratically nobody going there so the forest is basically untouched. We left from my parents house around half past 2 and in the beginning it was already looking good. We found chanterelles amost immediately and the lucky streak went on. My mother even found black trumpet mushroom! (Craterellus cornucopioides). I only found that mushroom once before in my life and it is so delicious! We stayed in the forest and didn't come home until 7pm. So we had dinner and I wanted to clean the mushrooms before going home again. But in the end it became so late I stayed the night at my parents place.

Friday at 2pm me and my mother went to the same forest but a different part and once again we didn't get home until like 7pm and the havest of mushrooms those 2 days was incredible! I cleaned the mushrooms before I went home and now I have my share conserved in jars.

Tomorrow me and Toine are going to the country place together with my parents and my middle sister Yvonne to visit grandmother, pick apples, and of course to get more mushrooms! And the mushroom season has just begun!


This is the black trumpet mushroom! Really beautiful!


This is what we refer to as a "butter hole". A Cluster of yellow chanterelles!



One of the chanterelles in the previous picture. It's a little blury but it was the biggest one I've ever seen! We called it "The holy one".


2 days harvest! Soo much!


I also found a cute frog!

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Plums

I went to my parents place today to pick some mushrooms together with my mother. But the weather was too bad for that and I got some plums from their trees in the garden instead. I made two jars for conservation, and they are flavored with a hint of dark rum. I'm making lemonade of the rest. Tomorrow I'm going back to pick mushrooms because the forecast promised better weather. Lets hope I can trust that.

I also got the results back from my psychiatric care test, and I passed so that is great!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Like you've never seen me before!

My middle sister is going to get glasses. When she went to the optician she strangely enough only had 3/10 eyesight. I find that a little odd considering she takes such good sharp pictures with her camera. But then again it's such a good camera that even blind people can take good pictures hehe. I want one like that... Anyway she is trying to pick out glasses for herself. I actually also have glasses although I don't use them so often. Objects in the distance becomes a little blurry on my right eye only.

I bought my student train card today. Normally a train card costs 690kr/month, but as a student I only pay 1780kr for 4 months (445kr/month) so that's a pretty good discount. I had to stand in line and wait for half an hour but it's worth it.

The plan today is to make home made full grain pizza!


Like you've never seen me before! An old picture of me and my glasses.

Good night

A late post today (tonight). Just like my middle sister, I also want a dog! But Toine is basically against all animals, even my aquariums...He keeps coming with the argument that they pee everywhere, they poo everywhere, and they bite and scratch on everything, and the hairs end up everywhere. Well the hairs everywhere I can agree with but that is easily solved with the vacuum cleaner!

I brought up the idea to buy a new aquarium instead of the 130L one I already have. It has basically been handed over 3 generations I think. My grandmother had it when my mother was young, and my mother had it when I was young. Now I'm having it, and it has scratches on a bit too many places, and there are also some damages in the corners. I'm worried that maybe it's not as solid anymore and I wouldn't want all that water over our new floor hehe. But Toine thinks it's still good so I guess I'll keep it for now. Eventually I want a new one though, but it might have to wait until we have a car so we can actually transport it after we buy one. Mostly I'd want a bigger aquarium but I think that probably wont happen until we have a bigger place ourselves.

This is an old picture of the large aquarium. Now it's a bit more "wild" since the plants have grown freely for quite some time.


This was my favorite Guppy male, I named him Rhett Butler after the handsome man in "Gone with the wind". Sadly he is dead now, most likely from old age.

This is Spike. Even though he looks cool, he is actually somewhat of a sissy. He doesn't dare to come out and show himself unless it is dark outside the aquarium.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Cleaning day

Today was designated "cleaning day". Landry time was booked between 1 pm and 4 pm. Sheets were changed, everything was cleaned. Floor got vacuumed, and wet wiped. Even my aquariums got "vacuumed" and I did a water change. Toine did the dishes (good boy) and helped with the laundry of course. We also recycled all paper and cardboard in the apartment! The only thing we didn't do was dusting. Oh and we went down town. I had to pick up a Christmas present that I ordered for my middle sister. It came in a much bigger package than I anticipated, so I'm happy I had Toine with me. He carried the large package home, while I did some fun shopping at the food market hehe. I came home with salad, lots of fruit, milk, grinded meat, cream, a whole chicken, some shampoo for me and Toine, some bregott (butter), garlic and stamps.

Not that my shopping list is anything interesting to read...

Today Toine thought it was a good idea with waffles for dinner! I agreed.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Buying jars

Today didn't bring me anything special. For breakfast I had 2 farm fresh eggs and they were actually a bit better than the ones in the store. I wonder if it's because they are completely free range. Probably. My parents went to Helsingborg today to visit some old friends who just had twins. I wish I could have joined them but the timing wasn't really good. Laundry time tomorrow so I didn't really have any other clothes to bring with me and things.

Me and Toine went to ÖB (överskottsbolaget) to get some more jars for conserving my mushrooms. The full glass ones I have seem to have trouble staying air tight. But the new ones are very pretty and work like a charm.

On the way home I saw a cute little furry larvae.

Friday, August 21, 2009

More mushrooms

This morning my mother and I decided to go search more mushrooms at a different place. We took grandmother with us, and she thought it was nice even thought she didn't have the strength to walk as much as she wanted to. We didn't find as much as I had hoped, but it's at least good for 2 conservation jars! I'm already running out of jars. I should probably go to IKEA to buy some more. My grandmother was going to look if she had any at home as well.

While searching for mushrooms I came across what we in Sweden call a copper snake (Anguis fragilis), in english it's called slow-worm. Both are actually incorrect names since it is actually a lizard without legs, and it's very beautiful and not dangerous in any way. In Sweden it's a protected species which means you are not allowed to disturb it in any way. I took a picture before it went to hide.

Toine came straight from work to my parents house since we were invited for dinner. We had some real swedish BBQ with vegetables and a large piece of meat on the grill (flinta stek). After that we watched a movie called "at least the weather was good - again" (Vi hade i alla fall tur med vädret igen). It's a continuation movie about a family who always screws up majorly when going on vacation. In the evening we got a lift home with grandmother.


A chanterelle hiding in the forest.


The pretty little lizard which I actually almost stepped on. I probably would have if I wasn't staring intensely at the ground for more mushrooms.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Grinda island

Today I got up early and went with my middle sister and my mother to a small island in the Stockholm archipelagos. We relaxed on a small beach, had a picnic next to the sheep, and took a hike around the island. It was beautiful weather, a little windy perhaps but it was nice. They had a farm on the island and me and my mother bought some farm fresh eggs from their free range hens. They had sheep, and cows as well, all very pretty to look at. When walking in the forest I saw many "baby" chanterelles and the urge to go pick mushrooms bubbled up inside me. So tomorrow I'm going to my parents again and we will go out in the forest again for more yellow gold!


A bunny was running around the main area, very tame and obviously used to all the people!


One of the cows, pregnant and very cute!


The view from the beach was lovely, you could see many sailboats passing by.


Got the sun in my face but anyway here is the new haircut and new hair color :)